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By Taruka Srivastav, Reporter

September 18, 2017 | 2 min read

Google entered into new competition with Paytm, Hike and WhatsApp by introducing its digital payments app Tez (English: fast) to foster government's Digital India initiative. The app is tailored to India needs and speaks eight Indian languages (English, Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu) and works with 55 banks.

On Google Tez, transactions are shown like simple conversations. Google's newly introduced feature Cash Mode enables one to pay without sharing bank details or phone number. The technology called audio QR Code works like Near Field Communication and uses ultrasound waves to connect two phones through the phone's microphone and speaker.

Arun Jaitley, India's finance and corporate affairs minister said: "Tez by Google and other ecosystems will make a major change in the digital payments landscape in India. It perhaps is the simplest form of money transaction."

Diana Layfield, VP finance and commerce products said: "Setting up the Chrome Web Payments interface for Google Tez is simple for merchants. When you pay using #GoogleTez, rewards may be just around the corner. Rewards, with a little help from your friends. Refer #GoogleTez to them and get paid when they make a transaction."

In a blog post, Caesar Sengupta, vice president, Next Billion Users Team wrote: "Small businesses can also use Tez to accept payments directly into their savings or individual current accounts (subject to regulatory limits).

"Backed by Google’s expertise in security and machine learning, Tez Shield works 24/7 and uses multiple signals to help detect spam, fraud, prevent hacking, and to verify and protect the identity of every user. Your account is also safeguarded with security options including your phone security method such as passcode or fingerprint and a Google PIN code."

Tez is available from today on Google Play and the App Store. In the next few weeks and months, Google will be working with its partners to add even more ways to pay on Tez (credit cards and wallets) and more places to pay.

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